Reports Show Legal Expenses Paid by Wright

Former House Speaker Jim Wright was spending almost $100,000 a month on lawyers to defend himself against ethics charges that consumed his final three months in office, his campaign finance reports show.

Wright’s campaign finance reports, filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, show that from March until May, he spent $282,000 to pay his lawyers from Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Evans, a Washington firm.

Last year, Wright paid $78,734 to the firm, his records show. That would bring the total to $360,734 from October through May.

Shortly before Wright announced in May that he would abandon his defense and resign, his supporters launched a fund-raising effort to cover legal bills said at the time to be approaching $500,000.

The supporters, who included Reps. Charles Wilson, J. J. Pickle, Jack Brooks and Martin Frost, all Democrats from Texas, helped organize a fund-raising event in Austin to finance Wright’s legal defense.

That money was to be placed in a legal defense fund, which would have had to disclose its finances next year if Wright had stayed in office. However, under House rules, his departure means that no such public disclosure of the fund is required.

Wright did not return telephone calls Friday to discuss the fund.

He relinquished the Speaker’s gavel and left the House in June.